Lead-pencil.



. C. R. KEERAN.

LEAD PENCIL.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 6. ma.

1,158. 1 1 PilfGll'EGd Sept. 7, 1915.

k lln lllrpll lnmt -I my)? Wflnases fizz/622W ran ,point.

pairs ea rrr sic LEAD-PENCIL Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 'liifi5.

Application filed October 6, 1813. Serial Na. @3588.

To all 'uuwm may, concern lie it known that l, (Ii-mums R. KEERAN, acitizen of the United States, residing at lloomington, in the county ofMcLean and State of lllinois, have invented certain new and useful.lmprcveinentsin Lead-Pencils, oil which the following is aspecification.

The present invention relates to that type of pencil in which the leadis fed out as desired from the body thereof by manually operated means.

lhe object of the present invention is to construct a device of thenature above de scribed, which will permit of the use of a r lead ofsmall diameter, so that a sharpening of the lead is not necessary inorder to maintain a point, the leadbeing so small that its normal sizeis the proper size for a writing A. further object of the invention isto provide a body for holding the lead, which is so constructed as toproperly reinforce the lead and prevent its breaking during use.

A. further object of the invention is to form said body of the samematerial from end to end, and of a one-piece construction,

and to use a fibrous material possessing certain characteristicshereinafter set forth.

A further object of the invention is to so arrange the forward end ofthe bore that extends through the body as to have it perits performingits form thefunctions-of a clutch to keep the lead from falling out fromthe body, and to so construct the device as to enable the bore to ladjusted and continue its action as whenever it shall have become wornand u i ed to an extent to prevent clutching function on the lead.-

A. iurther omect of the invention is to 111- case the body with ametallic or similar sheathing or casing, which Will prevent outwardexpansion and splitting of the body,

and which will give an attractive exterior to the pencil; "and to havethe body serve as a filler for the outer sheathing to prevent theshcathing from becoming bent or mutilated.

'The' invention furtheu consists in the few times of construction andcombination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

in the drawings: Figure 1 is an elevation of a pencil constructed inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention; F 1g.

2, a longitudinal. section of the device shown .inl ig. 1.; Fig. 3, adetail on an enlarged scale and section, showing the torward barrel orbody of thepencllfso as to elimiate the Whittling away of the woodformmg the body when it is desired to repoint or sharpen the pencil. Inmost of these de:

vices, the lead is of a diameter so that it must be cut away to form theWriting point, and d fficulty has been experienced in using a lead ofsmall enough diameter so that the point is always present and eliminatethe object onable feature of having the lead break during Writing. Thisis owing'to the fact that the lead is not "properly reinforced by thebody of the pencil, and hence when pressure is placed on the lead duringthe Writing operation it will break; Further difiiculty has beenexperienced in preventing these small leads from dropping out from thebody or barrel of the pencil, at undesirable times. i r

It is the primary object ofthe present invent-ion to eliminate both oftlic'above menj tioned dill'lculties, although, certain othernovelcharacteristics, which will more fully appear hereinafter, arefeatures of the present invention.

Referring, now,tothe drawings, and particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, thedevice consists of a body or barrel 5, which is preferably made of somefibrous substance, of any suitable kind; the barrel is tapered at itsforward end 6 to simulate in appearance an ordinary lead pencil, and isprovided with an axially disposed longitudinal bore 7, the'borecontracting at its outer end 8 so as to grad ually diminish in diametertoward the outer end thereof. The portion Z of the bore is intended toreceive ale-ad S, whichlead is of small diameter or'gage, so that. byits nature it is always pointed without the nelead is intended to have asliding fit within the major portion of the bore 7, but the for- Wardend 8 of thebore, by reason of its contraction, afiords a relativelytight fit for the lead at this point, and hence 'there is frictioncreated between the walls of the forward end of the bore and the lead,which friction serves to clutch or hold the lead and prevent itsdropping out from the body or barrel at undesirable times. 7

The lead is fed forward out from the bore byany suitable means, themeans illustrated consisting of a sleeve 9, having an interior thread 10meshing with a thread 11 on an outer shell or sheathing 12, and thesleeve 9 carries a wire or other member 13, which engages with the buttend of the lead, and, when the sleeve is turned, so as to advance alongthe body of the pencil, the member 13 acts to shove the lead forward andout from the bore, as desired. No claim is made, however, to thisparticular means for feeding the lead, as it is understood that anysuitable means may be employed for performing this operation.

The sheathing 12 is preferably of metal or some analogous substance, andserves as a binder toprevent a splitting of the body, and furthermoregives a finish to the pencil, since it may be formed of some of thefiner metals, as, for instance, gold or sliver, and thus make a veryattractive device. The body 5 serves as a filler for this sheathing, sothat the finer metals can be employed as a sheathing without danger oftheir becoming dented or mutilated by use.

A further function of the sheathing is as follows: It will happen thatby continued usage the forward end 8* of the bore 7 will become worn,and the tight fit and subsequent friction between the lead and the wallsof the bore at-this point will disappear. The body, as stated, is offibrous material, and when the bore becomes so worn it may be again madeof the desired dimensions by simply dipping the end of the pencil inWater, the water will swell the fibrous composition of the body, andsince it can'notexpand outwardly becauseof the sheathing 12, it willexpand inwardly and reduce the diameter of the bore, thus readjustingthe clutch to operating position.

It will be noted that a portion 14 of the body extends beyond the end ofthe sheathing. By this construction a further means is afforded forreestablishing the close fit between the lead and the forward end 8 ofthe bore. This means consists in lightly tapping the projected end ofthe"body, which will result in a compression of the same and a closingand consequent reduction in diameter of the bore.

It will further be noted that the point of gripping of the lead is rightat thevpoint of projection of the lead from the body, so that areinforcement is given to the lead close to the writing point, thuspreventing breaking, since so little of the lead need be projected as torender it difficult to break the small projecting portion. If the gripon the load were further back in the bore, then there would besuflicient leverage between the writing point and the point of grippageto cause a fracture of the same.

It will be further noted that the body 5 is of a relatively largetransverse thickness throughout'its length, thus giving a firm and rigidreinforcement for the lead throughout the body of the pencil. Theforward end ll of the body, as will be seen, is of a relatively blunt.construction and is not of a nature which will break under pressure orreadily become mutilated.

The pencil is extremely cheap and simple to manufacture and will provedurable in use and extremely simple of operation.

I claim:

A pencil comprising a body portion of fibrous material, said bod havinga bore therethrough, said bore being contracted at the outer end thereofto a size to give a tight fit of the lead therein and'being of a sizethroughout the remainder to permit of a sliding fit of the lead therein,said contracted portion serving as a clutch to maintain the lead inposition, a metallic casing surrounding the body portion and terminating short of the end of the body portion, and means for forcing the leadoutward through the bore in said body portion, substantially asdescribed.

CHARLES R. Keenan.

Witnesses 2 WM. P. Bonn, Ernnnnu Banmno.

